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5 January 2009

2009 Worlds Summary

The 2009 World Universities Debating Championship was jointly hosted by the UCC Law and Philosophical Societies. The Oxford University A team of James Dray and Will Jones won the championships. In doing so, they became the first partnership to simultaneously hold the World and European Universities debating titles, while Oxford became only the second institution to win back-to-back world championships (after Monash in 1999-2000). Dray and Jones have previously won the Masters title at the championships in 2008 and been Grand Finalists in 2007. The other finalists were Harvard A (Lewis Bollard and Cormac Early), Monash B (Ravi Dutta and Victor Finkel), and Oxford C (Jonathan Leader Maynard and Alex Worsnip). Babeş-Bolyai University won the English-as-a-Second-Language competition, and Vilnius University won the English-as-a-Foreign-Language competition. Naomi Oreb of Sydney topped the overall speaker tab, Leela Koenig of Leiden University topped the ESL tab, and Aiste Dumbryte from Vilnius topped the EFL tab. Patrick Bateman of Sydney claimed the Public Speaking title. In the Masters competition, Ross McGuire and Gregg O'Neill from Ireland claimed the team title while Irishman Barry Glynn took the individual title. Willard Foxton of Middle Temple won the stand-up comedy competition for the second time, becoming the first person to do so.

The University of Botswana were named as hosts for the 2011 championships after two unsuccessful bids to win the right to host in the previous two years.

Motions:
Final : That this house would allow abortion at all stages of pregnancy
Semi Final: This house believes governments should subsidise private home ownership.
Qtr Final: This house believes that the international criminal court should prosecute crimes against the democratic process.
Octo Final: This house would arm local militia to fight the taliban in Afghanistan.
ESL Final: This house would implement quotas for domestic players in national football leagues.
EFL Final: This house would prohibit all private health care.
Round 9: This house would ban the publication of political opinion polls.
Round 8: This house would apply a lower rate of income tax to women.
Round 7: This house believes that the west should recognise the independence of Abkhazia.
Round 6: This house would criminalise adultery.
Round 5: This house believes that China and India should bear the same obligations as the West in fighting climate change
Round 4: This house would force the religious desegregation of Northern Irish schools.
Round 3: This house would allow soldiers to sue their government for negligence.
Round 2: This house would fire the senior managements of all corporations which receive government bailouts.
Round 1: This house would ban all forms of gambling.
Womens Debate: This house would ban all forms of religious gender discrimination.
Adj Test: This house would allow insurance companies to view genetic test results in assessing potential customers.

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World Debating News

The website founder and editor is Colm Flynn. Colm is an emeritus member of the World Debating Council, a former Deputy Chief Adjudicator of Worlds and Chair of Worlds Council. He lives in Ardfinnan Co. Tipperary, Ireland. Colm is supported by a team of contributors from around the world. To submit an article e-mailcolm_flynn@hotmail.com